The Path isn’t a straight line. It’s a spiral. You continually come back to things that you thought you understood and see deeper and deeper Truths.
(Barry Gillespie)
It is privilege to stay in a profession, not to mention a company, for decades. When I entered my forth seven-year cycle watching the same movie, I had a realization. They say that ‘the more things change, the more they stay the same’, and that might be true for some, but for me personally, the equally well-known proverb, ‘history doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes’, hit the nail on its head. I saw in all my interactions a spiral at work that tended to unfold over 7-9 year periods. New colleagues came into my life, and many left as well; eventually, I started recognizing a pattern: there were the many friends, the agents of change, and the people who had a lesson in store for me. One day it occurred to me that everyone somehow just mirrored my inner ambitions, drives, fears, as well as struggles. It is true what the sages realized since the beginning of time, ‘as within, so without’. I lived that insight at work. With learning and inner transformation, the outer picture would change accordingly. Yet, the reason why we experience the movie plot as a spiral is that we can only change that fast; it takes a few years to adjust.
For some, the observation “the more things change, the more they stay the same” merely reflects the fact that they do not open themselves to the potential of inner spiritual transformation. Without learning and transcendence, the world will appear like an ever-repeating cycle. The ego will run into the same wall again and again, thinking that the world needs adjusting and not the ego itself. It doesn’t have to be that way at all! A spiritual path guides us actively towards leaving behind these self-imposed blinders that keep us stuck in these eternal ups and downs. We are steadily catapulted along an outward bound spiral that brings more wisdom and wholeness, more love and meaning, and also more fun along the Way.
Everyone who comes into our life is attracted like a magnet in response to the energies that we are emitting. These waves that we are sending out are both conscious and subconscious. We are on a quest that seeks healing, wholeness and self expression. Just imagine, one day we can learn to make better choices! We are less affected by the theater outside as we realize that we are in charge to bring about the change that we seek. We are more relaxed; we experience peace of mind and have more fun. As we figure this self-imposed movie plot out, we simply can't be sent on wild goose chases by anyone any longer. With the realization ‘as within, so without’, learning can take place in days and weeks, not months and years as it happened in the prior episodes. The Course in Miracles famously states, ‘Seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world.’ How true!
We all are sent on different healing missions, and we all have to figure out individually what our quest is all about. After trying to succeed in the stressful financial industry for a while on my own and not doing so well, I discovered that connectivity and cooperation was the answer for me personally. In ‘The Magnificent Experiment’, I coined the phrase, ‘The Power of the 4Cs’: creativity, communication, connectivity and taking care of each other. The Power of the 4 Cs works in every knowledge industry, and certainly catapulted me in my work. Today, I have moved on to my spiritual calling of being a writer, educator and spiritual life coach and I follow exactly the same recipe of success. I treat my meaningful connections—friends, mentors, mentees, and spiritual travel companions—as the gospel. With allies like that, success in what I do is pretty much guaranteed!
Stand ready to be spiritually transformed by life’s journey, and you will enjoy the progress in the form of an outward-bound spiral as well. It is the Way!
No comments:
Post a Comment